FKT Challenges

What happens when the plan falls apart out there? In this episode of FKT Challenges Podcast, host Svein Tuft sits down with good friend Greg Taylor to dig into one of the hardest decisions in ultra-endurance bikepacking: knowing when to scratch.

Svein opens up about his experience at the Caves and Coves TT on Vancouver Island — a route he'd been dreaming about for years. Despite meticulous planning and dialed logistics, an AFib episode triggered by a cold chocolate milk at a gas station in Campbell River threw everything sideways. He shares what it feels like to ride in atrial fibrillation, the challenge of weighing ego and a video project against personal health, and the hospital visit that followed.

Then the two recount their joint scratch from the Big Badger — a rugged 625K route through the Alberta Rockies. What started as a beautiful September ride turned into a battle against freezing rain, peanut butter mud, and gear destruction. Brake pads burned to the backing plate in 85K. Chains were wrecked. Average speeds plummeted. With no resupply for 350–400K and temperatures hovering around 4°C, they both faced the same question: is this worth it?

The episode also features candid reflections from three of the sport's most respected figures:

Lachlan Morton on why scratching shouldn't be shunned, how experience builds the judgment to back out of unsafe situations, and why ultra racing is an intensely personal experience.

Meaghan Hackinen on her pre-race guardrails — including a hard line on concussions — her crash on day two of the Tour Divide, and why she believes you should decide your scratch criteria before you're sleep-deprived and foggy at 3 AM.

Rob Britton on the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco — the coldest, hardest night he's ever ridden through, the stomach issues that nearly ended his race, the phone call to his wife he never makes, and the lesson that sometimes the smartest move is to sleep before you decide.

Throughout the conversation, Svein and Greg explore the deeper themes: the library of bad choices that eventually teaches you when to stop, the difference between discomfort and genuine danger, the investment cost that makes quitting harder on longer races, and the ego that makes it harder to walk away. They discuss burn rate planning, resupply strategy, gear selection in extreme cold, mechanical realities of riding through mud, and why normalizing extreme conditions can be dangerous.

Svein also introduces the Grizzly Gripper — a 24-hour backyard-style ultra at the White Grizzly Lodge near Meadow Creek, BC, designed to make ultra racing accessible and social with a 38K loop, lodge access, warm food, and a community vibe.

Whether you're a seasoned ultra racer or just curious about what goes on in the mind of an endurance athlete when things go sideways, this episode is a raw, honest look at the side of bikepacking that doesn't make the highlight reels.

FKT Challenges Podcast is supported by GripGrab, Landyachtz Bikes, Sea2Sky Nutrition, and Nomio.

Episode: Greg Taylor — First Winner of the Jumbo Wild 700

In the inaugural episode of the FKT Challenges Podcast, host Svein sits down with Greg Taylor from Coldstream, British Columbia — the first-ever winner of the Jumbo Wild 700 (originally planned as the 600, expanded due to fire reroutes).

Greg is a 54-year-old mountain biker who came into the sport through the '90s freeride and gravity scene, spent years downhill racing, and didn't discover structured training until age 48. Since then, he's gotten faster every year, progressing from six-hour races like the Salty Dog and Merit Crown to a third-place finish at The Buckshot, and ultimately to a 742K, 12,800-meter self-supported effort through the Kootenays in 49 hours and 52 minutes.

The conversation covers:

• The winding path into ultra racing — from freeride beginnings to discovering endurance through the Canadian Death Race, to finding structured training late in life
• Consistency over perfection — why habits and curiosity matter more than rigid protocols, and how motivation fuels consistent riding
• Race strategy and stop management — the hidden time costs of transitions, how Greg minimized stops, and the fueling and hydration approach that let him carry 600 grams of gel through the race
• The Jumbo Pass crossing — riding through bear country at night with a partner who got a flat tire and had to turn back, leaving Greg alone for an 8K alpine hike in the dark with nobody on the trail due to nearby wildfires
• A magical alpine moment — filtering water from a mountain stream at 1am under a smoky orange moon, a moment Greg says he'll carry for the rest of his life
• A bear encounter on Top of the World — a mother bear charging back up the hill at Greg on a steep, loose descent where stopping meant crashing
• Sleep deprivation on the second night — tunnel vision on fast descents, weeds turning into animals, and the strange, undisturbed calm of hallucinating in the backcountry
• The organizer's perspective — Svein on the challenges of routing a race through sensitive alpine trail, the mandatory bike carry, and navigating conservancy concerns
• Never too old — Greg's message that you can start structured training at any age and still get stronger, and his curiosity-driven approach to pushing boundaries

Greg also gives thanks to his wife Heather for finding the race on Instagram and supporting his passion, to Robin for the company on the Glacier Creek climb, to Anne Simonin for meeting him at the finish in Nelson, and to the Nelson and Kootenay gravel community for making the experience unforgettable.

The Jumbo Wild 700 is a self-supported bikepacking challenge created by Svein through some of the most remote and beautiful terrain in British Columbia, connecting the Kootenay valleys via two epic alpine passes — Jumbo Pass and Gray Creek Pass — with a ferry crossing on Kootenay Lake. The 2025 edition was altered due to wildfire activity, extending the route to approximately 742K.

FKT Challenges Podcast — conversations with the athletes pushing the limits of self-supported endurance.

[email protected] Connect with me

@svein.tuft on instagram

@fktchallenges on instagram

Svein interviews Dirty Dan (Daniel Connell) from Deadhorse, Alaska — the northernmost point of the Pan-American Highway — the night before he attempts to break the Guinness World Record for fastest cycling of the full Pan-American route to Ushuaia, Argentina (~14,000 miles).

Since his Pacific Coast FKT, Dan spent two months balancing training with family time rather than going full training mode. He felt good on back-to-back big days a month out and decided to maintain fitness rather than build, believing a "full heart" matters as much as peak form for a 70+ day effort.

The route goes south through Alaska and Canada on the Alcan Highway to Calgary, then east of the Rockies through the US to Texas, crossing into Mexico near the Gulf. Dan takes an unconventional Mexican route through a statistically more dangerous state to avoid deadly truck traffic on the main corridor. Through Central America he'll eat street food and deal with rain. He flies the Darien Gap (Panama to Cartagena) per Guinness rules. South America brings coastal Peru with brutal crosswinds, then a crossing into Chile via the Jama Pass — 100 miles above 5,000 meters (16,400 ft) — before a long flat Argentina stretch to the finish.

The Guinness record is 84 days (crewed). His real target is Bond's solo 76-day benchmark, after two supportive phone calls where Bond shared route notes. At 200 miles/day Dan would finish in ~67 days — which he admitted out loud "scares the shit out of me." Bond averaged 184.

He shipped four supply boxes along the route (Fairbanks, Texas, Panama, Lima) with tires, drivetrain parts, and a fresh kit at halfway. The bike ended up 10 lbs heavier than planned with a spare tire, bigger toolkit, extra layers, and a med kit.

The night before departure he met a motorcyclist at the only café in Deadhorse who had just finished the exact reverse journey from Ushuaia. Dan caught him at his final dismount — a full-circle moment that set the tone perfectly.

He departs at 6 AM with his filmmaker friend and his mom seeing him off, tracking live every hour.

Rob Britton: Three FKTs in One Week Across the UK

What does it look like to attempt three Fastest Known Times across an entire country in a single week?

In this episode, host Svein sits down with pro cyclist and ultra-endurance athlete Rob Britton, fresh off one of the most ambitious efforts we've heard on this podcast. Rob's plan: take on three iconic UK gravel routes — King Alfred's Way in southern England, the Pennine Bridleway in northern England, and the Badger Divide from Glasgow to Inverness in Scotland — all within seven days. Each route sits around 280–300 kilometers with 5,000 to 6,500 meters of climbing, back-to-back, with travel and bike rebuilds wedged in between.

The UK terrain surprises people. It's not big alpine passes — it's relentless short punishing climbs, overgrown grass tracks, and on the Pennine Bridleway, hundreds of gates. Some easy, some heavy farm machinery you wrestle open one at a time. Multiply that by the length of an entire route and it will crack you.

And crack it did. King Alfred's Way: going well, nine minutes up on the FKT with 80 k to go, until a rear tire hit a rock. Seven plugs later, still losing air, 14 hours of full gas effort with nothing to show. The Pennine Bridleway escalated into a survival situation — soaked to the bone on an exposed ridgeline, eight degrees, 60 km/h winds, a dead phone, no InReach, and the gates making it impossible to sustain enough pace to generate body heat. Rob describes crouching behind a stone wall eating M&Ms in the dark just to think clearly, and racing a descent in near-dark hoping his filmmaker was still waiting at the bottom.

Two DNFs. One route left. No confidence.

That's where the conversation gets genuinely interesting — the psychology of walking to the start line of something this hard when everything has gone wrong. Rob talks about his prep approach, his pacing philosophy, and what he actually saves for the end of these efforts: not physical energy, but mental fight.

The Badger Divide delivers the resolution this story needs. Tune in to hear how it goes.

FKT Smashed: Dirty Dan's Pacific Coast Record

Dirty Dan is back to break down his record-setting Pacific Coast FKT. Two conversations in now — the pre-ride chat before he rolled out, and this one, recorded less than two days after he finished — and if anything, this episode is even better than the first.

Dan rode from the US-Canada border to the Mexico border in 6 days, 15 hours, and 53 minutes, demolishing the previous record of 9 days and 13 hours across a 2,650 km route. His daily average was roughly 400 km. His total stop time across the entire effort — sleep, food, motels, gas stations, all of it — was just one day and eight hours.

How It Unfolded

The start was anything but smooth. A last-minute wind forecast check revealed a southerly headwind locking in along Oregon right when he'd be there. He made the call the same afternoon to start a day early, scrambled to Bellingham with his brother, barely slept, and rolled away from the border at 5:30 AM into rain and a puncture within the first 30 kilometres.

Day one ended at midnight after 280 miles. He set up his bivy — and discovered his brand new sleeping pad had a slow leak. Night one was on the ground, broken sleep, 40-degree temperatures.

Oregon delivered the headwind he'd feared. Two days of grinding into a relentless southerly wind along exposed coastal sections, speed down, morale tested. His response: stop checking the average speed, keep pedaling, and fixate on the California border. One mile per hour is better than zero. When he finally crossed into California, the weather eased and largely stayed good to the finish.

By day five, he was flying. The body had adapted, the rhythm was locked in, and he rode the final stretch feeling genuinely great — which is exactly what you want after banking enough rest and food in the early days to still have something left.

The Spirit of the Thing

What made this ride worth following wasn't just the pace. Dan stayed open the entire way — stopping for photos with diner staff, chatting with strangers, engaging with everyone who was curious about what he was doing. Once he hit California, supporters started showing up roadside in groups, sometimes ten or more, with signs and cheering. He says it felt like it was happening almost every hour toward the end.

That energy is real. And it's a choice. There's a version of this effort where you put your head down and shut the world out. Dan chose the other version, and it clearly worked.

Practical Notes

Sleep was a constant negotiation between bivy and motels — faster vs. better quality. His advice: carry the full kit regardless. The freedom to sleep anywhere is worth the weight.

Fueling was his biggest area for improvement. The body takes a few days to fully adapt to the caloric demand, and he wasn't eating consistently enough early on. Go-tos: sour gummy worms and chocolate milk at every 7-Eleven stop, sit-down diner meals when timing allowed. He brushed his teeth up to three times a day, sometimes while riding. Small stuff, but it keeps you feeling human.

The bike was an unreleased Trek endurance road bike, 35mm tires, SRAM Force AXS, full Tailfin bag setup. Everything held up across 2,650 km.

What's Next

Dan flies to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on July 17th to attempt the FKT from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego — roughly 11 times the distance of this ride. The current record is 75 days. He's already thinking about what it'll feel like to finally hit his groove two weeks in and have months of riding still ahead.

We'll be following along.

Connect: [email protected] | Instagram & Strava: FKT Challenges

Dirty Dan — Daniel Connell of Dirty Dan Bikes — is about to take on a Pacific Coast FKT, riding from the Canadian border toward Mexico on a route of roughly 2,667 km with over 24,000 metres of climbing.

This is a pre-ride conversation, recorded just days before he rolls out.

Dan’s story is a unique one. He didn’t come into cycling through racing or structure—he started with a $100 bike, a loose plan, and a desire to see the world. That mindset led to years of big, self-supported rides, including multiple Tour Divide efforts and countless adventures that were never about speed.

But somewhere along the way, that curiosity evolved.

In this episode, we talk about that shift—from slow travel to fast efforts—and what it looks like to take the spirit of bikepacking and apply it to an FKT attempt. We get into his setup, training approach, sleep strategy, nutrition, and the realities of taking on a route like the Pacific Coast at speed.

More than anything, this is a conversation about mindset.

About the energy before something big.

About putting yourself up against a challenge.

And about what you’re really chasing when you decide to go fast.

Dan will be tracking his ride live, and you can follow along via Trackleaders (link in the show notes).

We’ll be catching up with him again after the ride to hear how it all played out.

If you’ve taken on your own FKT challenge—or are thinking about it—I’d love to hear from you.

📩 [email protected]

📸 Instagram: @svein.tuft

🌍 tuftcamps.com

Follow Dan here on trackleaders

https://trackleaders.com/pacificfkt26f.php

Thanks!

🎙️ Episode Notes – FKT Challenges

Ali & Mat (Trip Longer) – The Great Northern Bikepacking Route

In this episode, I sit down with Ali and Mat from Trip Longer—two riders who’ve built their lives around long-distance bike travel, spending over a decade exploring the world by bike.

In 2024, they took on one of the biggest bikepacking routes out there: the Great Northern Bikepacking Route. Stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, it’s a massive, mostly off-road line across Canada that throws everything at you—mountain terrain, prairie wind, unpredictable weather, long remote stretches, and the mental grind that comes with months on the bike.

They didn’t set out chasing a record, but over the course of roughly 140 days, they completed what’s likely the fastest crossing of the route by a pair. Still, this conversation isn’t about speed.

It’s about the experience.

We get into what it actually feels like to commit to something this big—how the ride unfolds over time, the highs that make it all worth it, and the lows that almost end it. We talk about the reality of doing something like this as a couple, the moments where everything clicks, and the ones where things fall apart.

There’s also a deeper layer here—the role of community, the kindness of strangers along the way, and how sharing the journey in real time changes the experience itself.

This is one of those stories that goes way beyond the route. It’s about resilience, simplicity, and what you learn when you strip things back and just keep moving forward, day after day.

Whether you’re into big bikepacking routes or just trying to carve out your own version of adventure, there’s a lot in here.

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🔹 What we cover

- The Great Northern Bikepacking Route: what it is and why it’s unique

- Why Ali & Mat chose this route and what it demanded

- The reality of multi-month bikepacking

- Highs, lows, and near breaking points

- Riding as a couple—managing energy, stress, and expectations

- The role of community and trail magic

- What doesn’t make it onto social media

- Lessons learned from 140 days on the bike

- What this kind of journey teaches you about yourself

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🔹 Follow along

- Instagram: @trip.longer

Please reach out if you'd like to jump on a pod with your FKT story

[email protected]

Instagram @svein.tuft

Kootenay Gravel Classics – FKT | With Alec Janssens

What happens when you link together the best gravel in the Kootenays… and try to ride it all in one push?

In this episode of FKT Challenges, I sit down with Alec Janssens to unpack his Kootenay Gravel Classics route—a 315 km loop with over 4,200 meters of climbing that ties together Paulson Pass, the Old Cascade Highway, the Pend Oreille, and the rail trail back into Nelson.

But this isn’t just about a time.

It’s about the process.

Alec shares the story behind building the route, his first attempt that didn’t go to plan, and what changed when he came back stronger, smarter, and more prepared. We dive into the mental side of long efforts—the expectations, the low points, the resets—and how experience starts to matter more than fitness the deeper you go.

We also get into the feel of the route itself: riding through different ecosystems in a single day, the history tucked into these backroads, and the strange beauty of linking it all together under your own power.

This one’s less about chasing speed, and more about chasing something deeper—understanding what draws us to these big days out, and why they stick with us long after the ride is over.

If you’ve ever looked at a map and wondered, “what if I just connected all of that…”—this one’s for you.

FKT Challenges

FKT Challenges is a podcast about personal journeys on iconic routes—where the goal isn’t just speed, but the experience of taking on something meaningful.

Hosted by Svein Tuft, a former professional cyclist turned endurance athlete, this show explores the full spectrum of Fastest Known Time efforts—from the fastest to the slowest, and everything in between. Because every attempt has a story.

At its core, this is about a growing community of people choosing to do hard things—pushing themselves on big routes, sharing knowledge, and building each other up along the way. It’s about showing up, putting your own version of an effort out there, and being part of something bigger than just a time.

Through solo episodes and conversations, Svein dives into the why behind these challenges: the preparation, the uncertainty, the setbacks, and the moments that make these efforts unforgettable.

This isn’t just about chasing times—it’s about choosing a line, committing to it, and being supported by a community that understands exactly why it matters.

Feel free to connect with me and share a story. [email protected]